Wim, Rita, Willem and Aarnold

Hello there!

I successfully made it to Wim & Rita's house yesterday. At first there was some confusion as to what day they were expecting me, but I finally got a hold of my busy relatives Saturday morning to clear things up. (FYI -I spent Saturday in Brussles as planned then.) Once I arrived at the station yesterday, there were no pay phones! I had to ask one lady who was gardening if I could use her phone. She was so nice and let me into her house to make the call, and even asked if I would like to come back later for supper!

Last night I had a delicous gormet meal cooked by Rita outside on their patio. The wine was sweet, and also very good. (Yes I actually found an alcohol I liked!) Willem (their son) and Aarnold (his friend) joined us. They told me tons of stories about Willem's competitions in Dressage, and how they had to block two lanes of traffic yesterday because his motorhome/horsetrailer blew 2 tires! (The front half of the unit is a motorhome and the back can house 4 horses.) One daughter is working for Eggerding (their company)in Hong Kong, one is vacationing in France, and one lives two towns over.

The guest house is the size of an average garage, but has a small dinning room, bathroom then a living room/bedroom. Their farm is 1 km long and about 250m wide, with two very nice stables, and an indoor riding ring. Yesterday I helped feed the 10 horses that a kept there, and found out they have 4 others kept in other parts of the Netherlands.

Today I am writing from Amsterdam, because this morning Willem showed me around the processing plant and their office, which is just outside of Amsterdam. I had no idea they owned plants in South Africa and Germany as well! Willem's sectretary says they are a nice family to work for, and said they are so humble about owning it all. I would definitely agree as Wim kept saying that it was a SMALL business. I can't even imagine what a large one would be like!

Tomorrow Aarnold has a cat show (he breeds Persians) in Utrecht, so I will get a ride there with him. Then he has meetings in Amsterdam on Wednesday, so I might come here again with him. Then on Thursday I will travel to Roedermond (in the South) to visit Ans and stay with her daughter Carin's family. Then on Friday or Saturday they will take me sailing on the lakes north of Amsterdam! (It might be an over-night trip.)

I might not be able to email you again until I arrive in London next Sunday, so don't worry if you don't hear from me! I can't believe I'm home in 9 days! I'll let you know how my first sailing experience goes in my next post.

Be back soon!
Andrea